Thursday, 22 September 2016

22 September 2016 – Col de Rates

A
few years ago we decided to have a Birthday Week instead of just a Birth
Day.So instead of having one big day
we would spread it over a full week.“It”
consists mostly of eating and drinking.

This
is Jan’s Birthday Week, and we decided that today we would visit the restaurant
on the Col de Rates.This has long been
a favourite, and a nice place to have a special treat.

We
had planned to park at the restaurant, have a short walk followed by a well
deserved coffee and cake.

Unfortunately
the morning proved to be cloudy.This
was good for the walk, but not so good for the photographs.

Near
the car park we found this little “shrine”, no name or details just as you see
it here.Presumably a favourite spot of
someone no longer with us.

Having paused to admire the views we set off for our short walk

We
have always thought of this as the “hidden valley”.This was part of a lovely walk from Parcent
to the Col de Rates, which we have walked many times in the past.

Unfortunately
the owner of this finca has barred the path through his land and we now have to
take a detour which avoids the “hidden valley”.

The
Col de Rates is very much a German style restaurant, and rightly famous for its
coffee and cake.Our long time favourite
is apple strudel, but today we choose cheesecake instead.Hardly the healthy option, but much more so
than the apple strudel with its ice cream and cream.The photo does not do it justice, it was
much larger and tastier than it looks.

The
birthday girl found it difficult to finish her portion of cake

Fortunately her selfless companion was prepared to help her out

This
was the view from our table

After
our treat we had another short walk from the car park

The
views of Parcent were, as always, quite stunning

As we left the sky was clearing and the sun making an appearance

Click on a photo to make the image larger. You can also watch them as a slideshow.